Feats Of Clay
by Hellskitchen
Summary: Clark has dropped off the radar. The League is in chaos, it is up to Diana to bring him back. But when new enemies arise will her efforts be enough. Will any of theirs.


Chapter 1:

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** This popped into my head late last night and I couldn't get it out. I have a month of vacation right now so I'll have time to work on this. Anyway be forewarned this is nearly completely AU and is going to be very dark and messy. This is just a short introduction really. I'm working on finishing the next chapter right now and I'm hoping to post it later tonight. This just felt much better as a stand alone.

"Zod!"

Icy wind whipped Diana's hair around her face, tearing at her light sweater. Oak leaves swirled among the rows of granite headstones, and the trees lashed their branches together in frenzy. Diana's hands were cold, her lips and cheeks were numb, but she stood facing the screaming wind directly, shouting into it.

"Zod!"

This weather was a show of his Power, meant to frighten her away. It wouldn't work.

The thought of that same Power being turned against Kal woke a hot fury inside her that burned against the wind. If Zod had done anything to Kal, if Zod hurt him...

"Damn you, answer me!" she shouted at the oak trees that bordered the limbo.

A dead oak leaf like a withered brown hand skittered up to her foot, but there was no answer. Above, She turned - and gasped.

He was just behind her, so close that her clothes brushed his as she turned. At that distance, she should have sensed another human being standing there, should have felt his body warmth or heard him. But Zod, of course, wasn't human.

She reeled back a couple of steps before she could stop herself. Every instinct that had lain quiet while she shouted into the violence of the wind was now begging her to run. But she was an Amazon. And Amazons fought.

She clenched her fists. "Where's Kal?"

A line appeared between Zod's dark eyebrows. "Kal-El who?"

Diana stepped forward and slapped him.

She had no thought of doing it before she did it, and afterward she could scarcely believe what she had done. But it was a good hard slap, with the full force of her body behind it, and it snapped Zod's'head to one side. Her hand stung. He was too strong. She stood, trying to calm her breath, and watched him.

He was dressed as she had first seen him, in black. Sharp black boots, Kryptonian armour almost identical to Kal's only it appeared darker in color. The crest on his chest a symbol of leadership. Comical that. A mockery to the corrupted beast he really was. And he looked like Kal. She didn't know how she could have missed that before. He had the same dark hair, the same pale skin, the same disturbing good looks. But his hair was straight, not wavy, and his eyes were black as midnight, and his mouth was cruel.

He turned his head slowly back to look at her, and she saw blood rising in the cheek she'd slapped.

"Don't lie to me," she said, her voice shaking. "I know who you are. I knowwhat you are. You killed Martha Kent last night. And now Kal has disappeared."

"Has he?"

"You know he has!"

Zod smiled and then turned it off instantly.

"I'm warning you; if you've hurt him - "

"Then, what?" he said. "What will you do, Diana? Half Blood. Daughter of Zeus, siren of men. Whatcan you do, against me?"

Diana fell silent. For the first time, she realized that the wind had died away. The day had gone deadly quiet around them, as if they stood motionless at the center of some great circle of power. It seemed as if everything, the leaden sky, the oaks and purple beeches, the ground itself, was connected to him, as if he drew Power from all of it. He stood with his head tilted back slightly, his eyes fathomless and full of strange lights.

"I don't know," she whispered, "but I'll find something. Believe me."

"I do believe you," he said, relaxing, looking around the netherworld. Then he turned back and held out a hand to her. "You're too good for my brothers progeny," he said casually.

Diana thought of slapping the hand away, but she didn't want to touch him again. "Tell me where he is."

"Later, possibly - for a price." He withdrew his hand, just as Diana realized that on it he wore a ring like Kal's: silver and lapis lazuli. Uncanny to that of the House of El. Remember that, she thought fiercely. It's important.

"My nephew" he went on, "is a fool. He thinks that because you bare resemblance to Loana you're weak and easily led like her. But he's wrong. I could feel your anger from the other side of Krypton. I can feel it now, a white light like the desert sun. You have strength, Diana, even as you are. But you could be so much stronger..."

She stared at him, not understanding, not liking the change of subject. "I don't know what you're talking about. And what has it got to do with Kal-El?"

"I'm talking about Power, Diana." Suddenly, he stepped close to her, his eyes fixed on hers, his voice soft and urgent. "You've tried everything else, and nothing has satisfied you. You're the princess of Themyscira, but there's always been something just out of your reach, something you need desperately and can't have. That's what I'm offering you. Power. Eternal life. And feelings you've never felt before."

Shedid understand then, and bile rose in her throat. She choked on horror and repudiation. "No."

"Why not?" he whispered. "Why not try it, Princess? Be honest. Isn't there a part of you that wants to?" His dark eyes were full of a heat and intensity that held her transfixed, unable to look away. "I can waken things inside you that have been sleeping all your life. You're strong enough to live in the dark, to glory in it. You can become a queen of the shadows. Why not take that Power, Diana? Let me help you take it."

"No," she said, wrenching her eyes away from his. She wouldn't look at him, wouldn't let him do this to her. She wouldn't let him make her forget... make her forget...

"It's the ultimate secret, Diana," he said. His voice was as caressing as the fingertips that touched her throat. "You'll be happy as never before."

There was something terribly important she must remember. He was using Power to make her forget it, but she wouldn't let him make her forget...

"And we'll be together, you and I." The cool fingertips stroked the side of her neck, slipping under the collar of her sweater. "Just the two of us, forever."

There was a sudden twinge of pain as his fingers brushed two tiny wounds in the flesh of her neck, and her mind cleared.

Make her forget...Kal.

That was what he wanted to drive out of her mind. The memory of Kal, of his glow eyes and his smile that always had sadness lurking behind it. A smile that lit with warmth and promise when he looked at her. But nothing could force Kal out of her thoughts now, "I've already found what I want," she said brutally. "And who I want to be with forever."

Blackness welled up in his eyes, a cold rage that swept through the air between them. Looking into those eyes, Diana thought of a cobra about to strike.

"Don't you be as stupid as my nephew is," he said. "Or I might have to treat you the same way."

She was frightened now. She couldn't help it, not with cold pouring into her, chilling her bones. The wind was picking up again, the branches tossing. "Tell me where he is, Zod."

"At this moment? I don't know. Can't you stop thinking about him for an instant?"

"No!" She shuddered, hair lashing about her face again.

"And that's your final answer, today? Be very sure you want to play this game with me, Diana. The consequences are nothing to laugh about."

"Iam sure." She had to stop him before he got to her again. "And you can't intimidate me, Zod, or haven't you noticed? The moment Kal told me what you were, what you'd done, you lost any power you might have had over me. Ihate you. You disgust me. And there's nothing you can do to me, not any more."

His face altered, the sensuousness twisting and freezing, becoming cruel and bitterly hard. He laughed, but this laugh went on and on. "Nothing?" he said. "I can doanything to you, and to the ones you love. You have no idea, Diana, of what I can do. But you'll learn."

He stepped back, and the wind cut through Diana like a knife. Her vision seemed to be blurring; it was as if flecks of brightness filled the air in front of her eyes.

"Winter is coming, Diana," he said, and his voice was clear and chilling even over the howl of the wind. "An unforgiving season. Before it comes, you'll have learned what I can and can't do. Before winter is here, you'll have joined me. You'll be mine."

The swirling whiteness was blinding her, and she could no longer see the dark bulk of his figure. Now even his voice was fading. She hugged herself with her arms, head bent down, her whole body shaking. She whispered, "Kal - "

""I won't touch Kal-El. Not before I make him kill you; slowly. Intimately in all the ways he knows you fear." Zod's voice came back and she jumped. She ACTUALLY jumped. She was repulsed. "And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work; and when he screams I'll split his skull."

Her head jerked up, but there was nothing to see, only the dizzying whiteness, which burned her nose and cheeks and clogged her eyelashes. It was only then, as the fine grains settled on her skin, that she realized what they were: snowflakes.

It was snowing on the first of November. Overhead, the sun was gone.


End file.
